Re: [Gimp-gui] Possible places to save vertical space in Single (and Multiple) Window Mode

[Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre prokoudine gmail com>]

On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 6:32 PM, Elle Stone wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> After years of using GIMP in Multiple Window Mode, I'm thinking about
> switching to Single Window Mode - the "sticking point" is not enough
> vertical space in Single Window Mode.

Hi Elle,

I have to admit I understood most of your email as "let's cram it all
until UI elements are indistinguishable from each other" :)

> 1. A good quarter-inch of empty space above the tool icons - could this
> space be removed?

Or you can add (toolbox-wilber no) to gimprc.

> 2. I like having the "Foreground & background colors" dialog be in the tool
> box, but look at all the wasted horizontal space.

The space looks wasted, because you created such a wide group of
dockable dialogs :)

> If this icon could be made the same height as all the tool icons, and also simply float in line with
> the other tool icons, then vertical space could be saved.

At 16x16, the FG/BG widget will most likely be not very usable. While
tools can be switched via shortcuts, the widget is a mouse pointer /
tablet stylus target.

> 3. I think the extra space around the Tool Options sliders is currently
> determined by the system font size.

Vertical padding between sliders is tiny! Sliders are just a few
pixels apart. An extra 1px is not the problem here, the height of the
sliders is.

> 4. Same as above: The opacity slider has too much vertical padding.

Same as above :)

> 5. It seems to me that a tiny bit of extra vertical space could be saved by
> decreasing the vertical padding surrounding the icons at the bottom of the
> various Toolbox panels.

Not much though.

> 6. This is the biggie, literally. It would be nice to have the option to not
> have the image window tabs at all. But if having these tabs is a
> requirement, at least make the tab height and tab icons as small as
> possible. Is there a place in Preferences that controls this icon size? It's
> huge! Where in the code is the tab/icon size set?

Um, huge? It's more like regular :) And it depends on the size ratio
of the first image you opened, it could be tiny.

Either way, there recently was a discussion to introduce filenames for
tab captions as an alternative to previews. I hope that's going to
happen. And yes, I agree that smaller previews could be introduced
too.

> 7. Same as 5 - it seems like maybe a little less vertical padding could be
> used here, though of course there is the option to not show the task bar at
> all.

Frankly, I'm surprised that you keep scrollbars in the image window
around. They account for a lot more screen space than 7. Unless you an
me understand padding differently, of course.

Moreover, you could shave just a little more pixels by switching to
text captions instead of icon captions for dockable dialogs.

In general, I completely agree that things could be tidier, I just
don't think vertical padding between elements is our main enemy here
:)

Alex